Israel Matzav: No 'peace talks' unless Goldstone dropped?

No 'peace talks' unless Goldstone dropped?

Monsters and Critics (a left-wing blog) is quoting Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Gabriela Shalev as saying that Israel will not resume 'peace talks' unless the Goldstone Report is dropped.

'Our argument is that as long as the Goldstone report is on the table and everywhere they are quoting it and supporting it - also states that are considered our friends - we cannot make progress in the peace process,' Israel's ambassador to the UN Gabriella Shalev said.

'We will not sit at the table and will not talk with bodies and people who accuse us of war crimes. That is simply unacceptable,' she said in an interview with Israel Radio.

Shalev called the report 'distorted' and 'one-sided,' reiterating Israel's argument that the fact-finding committee headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone included members who had expressed advance judgements against Israel and that it was established by a Human Rights Council hostile to it.

Now was not a 'comfortable time' to revive negotiations, as half the Palestinian areas continued to be controlled by the radical Islamist Hamas movement, Shalev said.

'So if they expect us to renew the peace process and to freeze settlements, we expect the international community to enable us to take risks (for peace) and not deny us - as this report does - our right to self-defence.'

I don't believe she's threatening to cut off 'peace talks' (I did not hear the original interview with Shalev, but Monsters and Critics says "Israel threatened Wednesday that it would not renew peace talks with the Palestinians, unless a United Nations report accusing it of having committed war crimes during last winter's Gaza war was dropped)." What she's doing is stating reality that Israel cannot make the types of 'concessions' that the 'international community' expects us to make so long as the Goldstone Report is hanging over our right to self-defense. And I believe that nearly all Israelis would agree with that assessment.

There may be 'peace talks' while Goldstone is pending, but they're going to be about the shape of the table. And no one is threatening anything. Just stating reality.

Israel Matzav: No 'peace talks' unless Goldstone dropped?